<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2017 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'A tunnel in Minetest',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2017/04/24.jpg" alt="A Nyan Cat in a cave" class="framed-centred-image" width="800" height="600"/>
<section id="advertisements">
	<h2>Unsponsored advertisements</h2>
	<p>
		Glitchedpuppet and Eevee just released a <a href="https://eevee.itch.io./lunar-depot-38">game</a> and <a href="https://floraverse.bandcamp.com/album/lunar-depot-38-ost">soundtrack</a> as I was going to bed.
		The game requires the usual updated version of LÖVE I don&apos;t have, so I&apos;ll have to wait to play that.
		The soundtrack&apos;s kind of interesting though.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		I came up with the most awesome upgrade for the tunnel I plan to build on my production Minetest server, once I have one.
		Previously, the bottom edges were lined with lava and the walls were lined with torches.
		This made it a well-lit place, so it was easy to see and navigate.
		However, the Minetest Game developers decided to copy Minecraft in making lava harden into &quot;obsidian&quot; and making this &quot;obsidian&quot; very difficult to break.
		They do realise obsidian is a volcanic &quot;glass&quot;, right?
		It should be as easy to break as the standard glass nodes.
		In any case, they didn&apos;t want obsidian to be renewable, so they took away our renewable lava.
		Sucky, right?
		So lava-lined tunnels aren&apos;t feasible.
		Even if I could acquire enough non-renewable lava, I&apos;d have to bring it in by hand.
		I used to use some fancy bucket work to spread my existing lava, but now, I&apos;d need to carry all the lava I need on me.
		Lava buckets don&apos;t stack, so if I carry nothing else, I&apos;d have thirty-two lava buckets.
		That&apos;s only enough lava for thirty-two meters worth of tunnel, which means frequent lava runs and frequent searches for new lava pools.
		No thanks.
		This time though ... we have powered rails and mine carts.
		The tunnel doesn&apos;t <quot>*need*</quot> to be navigable on foot.
		I think I&apos;ll keep the tunnel dim and dot the edges with flames.
		I&apos;ll use about two flames per sixteen meters of tunnel, one on each side, and staggered.
		The entry sections of the tunnel will be filled with sunlight and be lined with stone bricks, but then after a transitional section in which the stone bricks fade to cobble, the main tunnel will be lined with cobble and be dimly lit by these flames.
		The flames&apos;ll make travel on foot feasible, as you can see where the path continues, even if you can&apos;t see the actual path very well, but more importantly will be how it looks from the mine cart.
		Players will zip by with flames passing them by on both sides.
		I think it&apos;ll be quite an experience!
		It might get dubbed the &quot;hell tunnel&quot;, but that&apos;s a risk I&apos;m willing to take.
		Personally, I&apos;m calling it a subway, for now.
	</p>
	<p>
		Perhaps a cooler idea would be to sink every mineral I collect in the creation of the tunnel back into the tunnel.
		The walls would have random non-coal ore blocks scattered within their visible surfaces and the floor would be littered with coal blocks, all on fire.
		There&apos;s a pretty big downside to that plan though.
		Last time, I sunk about four coal into the creation of every map block of tunnel.
		People decided to come down and help me; I didn&apos;t ask them to.
		Everything worked out though, and the tunnel continued to serve its three purposes.
		First and foremost, it gave me a project in which I could make something productive while still mining like crazy.
		I bored a thick hole through the rock, and the minerals flowed into my treasury like a river.
		Who cares if other players came and stole minerals from my tunnel?
		I was still probably the richest (in terms of iron, coal, and mese) player on the server.
		Second, the tunnel walls gave me a sink for much of the cobble I acquired while looking for minerals.
		I still had way too much, and I made the mistake of giving it away, but the walls helped.
		This time I&apos;ve learned though.
		If you give away chests and chests of cobble, players will fill the spawn area with a town made from ugly cobble.
		Cobble is fine in moderation, but it&apos;s not a good main building material.
		Third, the tunnel acted as a transport system for players.
		A few players requested I build entrances near their creations, so those users saw more visitors to their distant areas because their places were easier to find.
		If I sink my minerals back into the tunnel, it has the advantage that my minerals are not just rotting in some chest, only to ever be seen by me.
		However, it would make my project much more sensitive to mineral theft.
		If other players mine with me in my tunnel, they&apos;re not going to sink their minerals back into it.
		Players did contribute torches to my tunnel, which cost them coal, but this was a minor cost, especially compared to how much they got back in exchange.
		With this new idea, every mineral they dig up in the creation of the tunnel but don&apos;t give back will be a ninth of an ornamental node lost.
		If they dig stretches of the tunnel when I&apos;m offline, there could be sections of the tunnel that are completely unlit and have no ornamentation.
		I also don&apos;t know what to expect.
		I had a huge treasury before, but that was from saving up for so long.
		I picture the ornamented tunnel as having more in it than is probably sustainable, even if I&apos;m the only one digging.
	</p>
	<p>
		I started a test to see how many minerals I&apos;d find in a single map block, but I didn&apos;t actually get far enough to dig out a full map block.
		Even if I did, you have to account for the fact that some blocks have large, air-filled caves, while others are mostly stone and minerals.
		There&apos;s no definite amount, just a range.
		On the way down to a deep enough area to measure mineral quantities, I ran into another Nyan Cat!
		This one&apos;s in a block adjacent to the tunnel, so a small detour will snag it for me.
		This actually comes after a recent change in my plans that makes PB&amp;J Pups, the soon-to-be replacement for Nyan Cats, exceedingly more important in <code>minequest</code>.
		Previously, one was just needed to complete a pointless quest.
		Now though, there are nine quests, each a bit more difficult than the last, and each must be done in order.
		The second-to-last one it to fine a PB&amp;J Pup and its candy trail.
		After that actually comes an easier quest, the only one easier than the one before it, but it&apos;s the most important of them.
		It&apos;s a quest to track down the Mysterious Waypoint, a randomised location unique to each player.
		Find it though, and you can warp back at any time.
		I planned to put my home there, but after changing the quest mechanics, I thought it&apos;d be a while before I even knew where to look.
		Now though, I should soon be set.
		That said, I don&apos;t think I want to head there right away any more.
		I want to make great progress in the tunnel first.
		Also, if I sink all my minerals into the tunnel, I won&apos;t really need to get home right away.
		I won&apos;t have anything to store there.
	</p>
	<p>
		I just opened a can of these mixed vegetables, and I feel a bit gypped.
		No wonder they were so cheap.
		The third ingredient on the can (including the first ingredient, water) is potatoes!
		Don&apos;t get me wrong, I love potatoes, but I was looking for something to cook <strong>*with*</strong> the potatoes I cut myself.
	</p>
	<p>
		I worked the front till today.
		One of the shift leaders mistakenly thought I was frustrated about drive-through customers yesterday, so gave me a break from them today.
		What I really got a break from today was cleaning up the back room.
		Cleaning&apos;s not so bad, but what&apos;s bad is the lack of time and the extent of the task.
		Cleaning the back would be no problem if not lumped together with the drive-through task, which ties up most of my time.
	</p>
	<p>
		One customer came and ordered a Hawaiian, so I gave it to them, at which point they said they didn&apos;t want it and handed their change back.
		Um.
		Okay.
		As I was trying to figure out how to properly issue a refund, they said they didn&apos;t want a pizza that&apos;s been in our warmer.
		They wanted a fresh one.
		Why didn&apos;t they just say that from the beginning?
		They just assumed we wouldn&apos;t have a pizza ready that we&apos;re known for always keeping ready.
		Additionally, we&apos;re happy to make any pizza fresh as long as customers are fine waiting for it to cook.
	</p>
	<p>
		I saw one customer tip me their receipt.
		Seriously?
		That seems rude.
		Another one must&apos;ve done it as well, as I had two receipts in my tip jar by the end of the night.
	</p>
	<p>
		I forgot to mention getting a letter from the $a[DMV] last night.
		They say I need to renew my $a[ID] soon.
		It seems this is in regards to my original $a[ID] card, not the learner&apos;s permit that replaced it, as the permit still has some time before it expires.
		This could be the perfect chance to get my $a[ID] replaced and my permit voided!
		It&apos;s too bad it can&apos;t wait a few months though.
		I&apos;d love to renew it after I legally change my name, but I&apos;m not quite ready to do that yet.
		For starters, I want to do it between school terms, when I have the most free time.
	</p>
	<p>
		Discover sent me another letter asking me to update Yst Dawson&apos;s information.
		They won&apos;t actually allow me to do that without attaching a Social Security number to the account though, so that&apos;s <strong>*not*</strong> happening.
		I&apos;ll just keep waiting and see what happens.
	</p>
	<p>
		My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="dreams">
	<h2>Dream journal</h2>
	<p>
		I had a bizarre dream last night.
		The events were pretty mundane, but I was acting totally out of character for myself.
		I was driving a car trying to get donuts from a drive-through.
		I realised I didn&apos;t know what was in the donuts and I didn&apos;t care.
		I waited at the menu board, no one would help me, then a car came up behind me.
		The person at the menu board spoke, asking me to pull forward so I did.
		but it turns out they wanted me out of the way so they could help the next person.
		They just skipped me!
		That ticked me off.
		After they helped the other person, I went back to the menu board ans waited.
		Nothing happened.
		I left my car in the drive-through and went inside to tell the people there off.
		Somehow though, I went into the wrong store.
		It was a strip mall type place, a building with three stores.
		The donut shop was on the far right, when looking from the front of the stores, so that&apos;s where their drive-through was.
		I walked past the doors of the donut shop and whatever the middle shop was, and went in the third shop to tell <strong>*those*</strong> people off.
		The manager there was apologetic, but said they couldn&apos;t do anything.
		They weren&apos;t running the donut shop, but a &quot;meat shop&quot;.
		It looked like it was actually a sandwich shop, and might have even been a Subway, but in any case, I&apos;d come to the wrong place!
		I apologised and headed past the dark-windowed middle store to the actual donut shop.
		They looked like they sold donuts in bulk, and it was the kind of store that didn&apos;t seem like they&apos;d be operating a drive-through at all.
		They carried things such as &quot;donut spice&quot; as well, whatever that is.
		In-store, there were actual ingredient labels on things, so while I didn&apos;t seem to care in the drive-through, I took the time to actually read before buying in-store.
		I awoke before even getting through the ingredients list of the donut spice that I didn&apos;t even want to buy (I wanted to know what it was though), so I never did get any donuts.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
